Nice Flashlights as Christmas Gifts

My family is big into the outdoors and into hunting. Not so big into technology or gadgets...

The best flashlight my father owns is from the 70's and takes like 6 D batteries :tsk:


Im looking into purchasing a few "decent" or at least decent in comparison to what they have flashlights. My goal is to not exceed $30 each and that has to include shipping, battery, and charger.

Ive found some "300lm" cree lights with 18650s and charger on ebay for $22 shipped but im not sure if these will be all that great.

Any suggestions?


These are two im currently debating if anyone wants to weigh in on them

CREE Q5 LED Zoom Flashlight Torch+18650 Battery+Charger - eBay (item 280501451451 end time Nov-28-10 12:26:35 PST)

CREE Led 500Lm K8 Flashlight Torch Lamp Charger 18650 - eBay (item 390260521481 end time Nov-18-10 07:41:21 PST)

bradd, the cree lights that were "mistakes" are actually pretty cool flashlights.

I was planning on getting some of them for work gifts.
They have 3 mode drivers for hi-lo-strobe.

it looks like that first one is pretty much the same.
I would go for it. they make pretty nice flashlights for the price and with that fish eye lens they can light up a spot about 100 yards away.
I kept one that i carry with me

only problem is i don't care about the people at work enough to shell out for chargers and batteries....so i might just go cheap with soem cards and scratcher tickets.

Those look nice. I was looking for a high power flashlight for my Mt Bike. How well do those hold up to shock? I don't ride off road, but the streets here are pretty rutted.

If you are looking for compact and a nice quality, I have used
these for laser hosts, but are also cool flashlights.

When used with a 3.6v lith, they are bright as hell.. and
stainless steel. Heavy and solid, fits in the palm nicely.

They are 2 mode, high and low with memory of the last mode used.
Definitely one of the nice flashlights on DX.

DealExtreme: $25.80 UltraFire RL-118 Stainless Steel OSRAM LUW-W5AM 2-Mode 150-Lumen Memory LED Flashlight (1*CR123A)

Thanks for the suggestions!

I found a seller who is selling the same lights ive seen on ebay for $25-$30 for under $9...

Too good to be true? According to ebay he doesnt have a single sale as of yet but that could be the reason he is selling them so cheap to entice some first sales... or it could be a scam but using paypal it doesnt seem like he/she would have much to benifit from a few $9 transactions.

Heres the link
http://cgi.ebay.com/CREE-Led-800-Lu...ps_Torches&hash=item3cb28b3c9b#ht_4035wt_1139

Looks like his listings were taken down. Glad I didnt order.

Im going to make an order in the next few days so they can be here before xmas. More suggestions would be useful and appreciated!

I got bought a Cree Q5 from sky21cn on ebay for 19.01 with a battery and charger. His auction for this item have been going off at $15 to $20.00. Bought a bicycle mount from another guy and I'm going try the Q5 on the bike. If that works I think I'll try to upgrade to a SR5 800 lumen light.... Maybe I'll mount both...

They're all made by the same people, the ___fire crowd. Just pick one that looks nice. Usually, the bigger the reflector, the more lux it can generate given the same lumens.

I'd probably recommend something more pocketable, though, that runs on a single AA or a single CR123. They won't perform as well as one powered by an 18650, but they won't have to know about lithium safety or anything like that. CR123's are expensive at the store, but cheap online. AA's are cheap everywhere.

I find that the lithium AA batteries are a LOT cheaper on ebay.
You can always get them for under a buck apiece but sometimes as low as .66 per batt.
18650s are too good to pass up though, a little size means the difference between mediocre and great?
I'm a big fan of great
I dealt with a dealer directly to get a couple of ultrafire SSC D7-D bin flashlights. Basically the same as this:DealExtreme: $34.29 Aurora AK-P7-5 HA-III SSC P7-C 5-Mode 900-Lumen LED Flashlight with Assault Crown (1*18650) (but mine were 2/3 the price including shipping).
I like the flood of the beam and it is more of a "sunny" light. Most LED's you can't tell if a steak is done (color) but these seem to give a nice range of the spectrum.
Adding the batteries and charger is a nice touch though, might be best to just stick with the ones you already found.
The "3000mAh" batteries they sell with them are not protected though. People not familiar with lipos might kill them off pretty quick.

AUTO XX said:

I find that the lithium AA batteries are a LOT cheaper on ebay.
You can always get them for under a buck apiece but sometimes as low as .66 per batt.
18650s are too good to pass up though, a little size means the difference between mediocre and great?
I'm a big fan of great
I dealt with a dealer directly to get a couple of ultrafire SSC D7-D bin flashlights. Basically the same as this:DealExtreme: $34.29 Aurora AK-P7-5 HA-III SSC P7-C 5-Mode 900-Lumen LED Flashlight with Assault Crown (1*18650) (but mine were 2/3 the price including shipping).
I like the flood of the beam and it is more of a "sunny" light. Most LED's you can't tell if a steak is done (color) but these seem to give a nice range of the spectrum.
Adding the batteries and charger is a nice touch though, might be best to just stick with the ones you already found.
The "3000mAh" batteries they sell with them are not protected though. People not familiar with lipos might kill them off pretty quick.

Click to expand...

I ended up going with some lights from priceangels.com. I figured if I had any problems id have someone here to contact which is a big advantage over other sites plus john estimated 14 day shipping which is much less then the 25 day estimates ebay was giving me. I just need them by xmas which shouldnt be to difficult. The prices were actually cheaper than ebay too!? That surprised me even though it wasnt by much.

I got one of these Cree Q5 pocket sized lights for my brother.

3-Mode Cree Q5 LED Falshlight Torch(1*18650) $10.16 Free Shipping

I have two of these types of lights one of which is functional and the other is now a laser. They are great little lights and hosts! My brother is tech savy enough to use the 18650s as long as I explain the danger. I bought the same charger for my brother that Larrydfw sent with my sony batteries I bought from him. According to many websites including ultrafire.net the batteries I purchased (Gray and red ultrafire 3000mAh) are protected. I would have loved some more sony's but im on a budget and this Q5 led isnt drawing insane amps as far as I know.

For my father who is much less tech savy I got him a 3xAAA Q3 headlamp

High Power Zooming Cree Q3-WC Single Mode Headlamp $5.78 Free Shipping

Hes always using 10 year old headlamps that use multiple little leds to provide a faint glow in front of you. Im assuming this should be quite an improvement even though it is so inexpensive. Im gunna pick up some rechargeable AAAs so hes not burning through batteries all the time as I would imagine the Q3 will drain them much quicker than he is used to.

If anyone knows how this might compare to the old multi LED headlamps found at various sporting goods stores 8-12 years ago I would be very interested to know.

Also on a different note im debating picking up a high power light for myself.

I cant decide between the ultrafire TR-1200 (5x Q5 LEDs) or one of the various ssc p7 lights. Does power vary greatly from one light to another even with the same LED? How do the ssc p7s stack up against 5 Cree Q5s? Battery life with 5 LEDs vs the one?

Here is the TR-1200
TrustFire TR-1200 HA-III 5*Cree Q5-WC 1200-Lumen 5-Mode Memory LED Flashlight (2*18650) $38.95 Free Shipping

This is what im leaning towards but I hate that it has 5 modes. Who on earth wants more then 2 modes? High and Low. Im not hosting a desert rave or the captain of a sinking ship and I dont want to have to click a half dozen times just to use my flashlight...:gun:

I ordered a 300 lumen Q5 and bicycle mount, if that works well I might try to mount a 800 lumen SR5...

Although I am still am of mixed feelings... wondering if being more visible on the bike will make me safer or give drivers something to aim at....

Although I just saw this and really have a desire to escalate
CREE 5×Q5 LED 1200 Lumens Tactical Flashlight Hunting - eBay (item 180579059695 end time Nov-24-10 07:13:53 PST)